Modalities and Approaches
Maria integrates multiple modalities and approaches, fully customizing her approach to each individual person. Below are the main ones from which Maria draws.
Attachment Theory
Attachment is the emotional bond developed between an infant and the attachment figure, usually a parent or other primary caregiver, during the first year of life. Attachment behavior is an infant’s strategy to seek proximity to the attachment figure and their coping mechanisms when separated and reunited. The resulting emotional attachment and behaviors become the internal working model of the child, influencing their emotions and intimate relationships throughout the course of their lives. Early attachments significantly affect a child’s emotional development and adult relationships later in life.
The relationship we have with our primary caregivers growing up is the core example from which we form, understand, and navigate our own relationships throughout childhood and adulthood. The four common attachment styles are: secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganized or fearful-avoidant, and each of these has different effects on the way we approach relationships, especially those that are intimate. Attachment styles are not set in stone – they are open to change based on new experiences, and many people have different attachment responses to different partners and relationships in their lives. Attachment-based therapy aims to build or rebuild trusting, supportive, secure relationships.
Brain Development and Neuropsychology
Understanding brain development and neuropsychology, and how they impact psychological development is a key underpinning to Maria’s approach to therapy. She has spent countless hours studying neuropsychology, child development, and parenting approaches, in order to deeply understand what is needed to develop a healthy, integrated Self that is resilient. By knowing what is possible and necessary, she is able to see gaps or lacks in your childhood that you may not know are contributing to your current mental state. She has a particular interest in how the brain processes and stores trauma. Educating her clients about their brains and how they work is foundational to her work.
Dance/Movement Therapy and Art Therapy
The power of dance and art are both creative outlets of expression and tools for deep personal exploration. Dance/movement therapy is a somatic tool that uses movement to help clients explore and physically integrate their feelings, mind, spirit, and experiences. Dance/ movement therapy can help clients improve self-esteem and body image, tune into their bodily and emotional needs, ground thought patterns, gain insights into behaviors, and create new options for coping with problems.
Maria deeply believes that everyone is a “mover.” We communicate through our bodies long before we learn to talk, as we develop we add words to our communication; however, body language remains our most basic means of recognizing our needs and expressing ourselves. Emotions are stored in the body, and in order to access them, work with them, and transform them, we must engage the body.
Bodies come in all shapes, sizes, and abilities. Maria’s goal is to meet you exactly where you are at, and to discover the joy of movement expression that feels best in your body. By movement, she does not mean exercise. Movement can be as small as the flick of a finger, the deepening of your breath, or as big as full body rolling around on the floor.
Art therapy is another form of expressive therapy that connects clients with new insights and processing tools that activate different parts of their brain than when verbally recounting experiences. Art therapy can be cathartic and empowering, offering coping mechanisms that the client can initiate on their own, and it’s certainly not just for “artists”! In art therapy, clients are encouraged to express themselves in any medium they feel pulled to, which could be painting, sculpting, poetry, collage, or other creative ideas offered by the therapist or client.
Internal Family Systems
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a method of therapy that helps individuals become aware of the different “parts” of themselves. The theory is that we all have an “inner world” made up of parts or sub-personalities that are based on our experiences. These parts can be helpful, while some can also produce struggles. They might take the form of an angry teenager or a nurturing mother, for example. IFS is based on the idea that each person has a “system” inside them: one or more parts of themselves that are connected together in some way. Each part has its own personality traits and coping mechanisms, and they also have different needs, wants, and feelings – just like different members of a family. Through bringing awareness to these parts, they become more able to communicate fluidly with one another and cooperate, rather than present barriers to cohesion into one “self.”